Details

Date

1879

Author

Pasteur

Contribution

Isolated pathogenic staphylococci and streptococci.

Reference

Foster

Notes

According to Foster, he did not "discover" the organisms. He isolated from boils what was probably Staphylococcus aureus, and believed it to be causative. In the same year he isolated it from osteomyelitis bone marrow, and believed it to be causative. He also showed that despite the presence of pus in boils, the blood of the patient was sterile. See 1881, 1882. Pasteur also observed in childbed fever, an organism that was probably the bacterium later named Streptococcus pyogenes; but the significance was clouded by the presence of multiple species.